Vault 8 release says spooks used disguise to siphon off data

The CIA wrote code to impersonate Kaspersky Labs in order to more easily siphon off sensitive data from hack targets, according to leaked intel released by Wikileaks on Thursday.

Forged digital certificates were reportedly used to "authenticate" malicious implants developed by the CIA. Wikileaks said:

Digital certificates for the authentication of implants are generated by the CIA impersonating existing entities. The three examples included in the source code build a fake certificate for the anti-virus company Kaspersky Laboratory, Moscow pretending to be signed by Thawte Premium Server CA, Cape Town. In this way, if the target organization looks at the network traffic coming out of its network, it is likely to misattribute the CIA exfiltration of data to uninvolved entities whose identities have been impersonated.

Eugene Kaspersky, chief exec of Kaspersky Lab, sought to reassure customers. "We've investigated the Vault 8 report and confirm the certificates in our name are fake. Our customers, private keys and services are safe and unaffected," he said.

Hackers are increasingly abusing digital certs to smuggle malware past security scanners. Malware-slinging miscreants may not even need to control a code-signing certificate. Security researchers from the University of Maryland found that simply copying an authenticode signature from a legitimate file to a known malware sample – which results in an invalid signature – can result in antivirus products failing to detect it.

Learn client-server C programming – with this free tutorial from the CIA

Independent experts reckon the CIA used Kaspersky because it's a widely known vendor.

Martijn Grooten, security researcher and editor of industry journal Virus Bulletin, said: "The CIA needed a client certificate to authenticate its C&C comms, couldn't link it to CIA and used 'Kaspersky', probably just because they needed a widely used name. No CA hacking or crypto breaking involved. Clever stuff, but not shocking. Not targeted against Kaspersky."

Revelations about the abuse of digital certificates by the US spy agency came as Wikileaks released CIA source code and logs for a malware control system called Hive, as previously reported.

Security expert Professor Alan Woodward criticised the release with a reference to the Equation Group (NSA hacking unit)/Shadow Brokers leak. "Wikileaks is now releasing source for exploits in Vault 7. Do they remember what happened last time such exploit code was leaked? Standby for another WannaCry." ®